


Deeper than Skin

by TheIngenue



Series: Undertale Works [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Gender-Neutral Pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 01:23:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5186870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIngenue/pseuds/TheIngenue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk is crying, Sans is culpable for said crying, Toriel is furious, and Papyrus? </p><p>Papyrus is excited to see Frisk's x-ray.</p><p>(Teen rating because Sans swears like a sailor in chapter two whoops)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Tree

**Author's Note:**

> I thought this would be cute, I don't know; second chapter will probably be a little later than I thought it would be because as I was editing this chapter I found out my cat is going to be put to sleep in a few days ahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa. This will also account for any errors you see. Sorry about that.
> 
> I want criticism, so please do judge my writing. Or leave a kudos. Validate me.

"I'm going to climb that."

Sans quirked a brow bone at Frisk, before pointing to the large tree in front of them. "that thing? you're gonna climb the tree?"

Frisk nodded eagerly, brown hair flopping in their face. Sans frowned slightly. "i don't know kid. tori gave me one rule about taking you to the park, and that rule was-"

"'Not to climb trees', I _know_ ," Frisk interrupted, turning their head to look at Sans. "But mom's just being protective. I can climb trees and not get hurt!"

Sans resisted the urge to rub his temples. "look, frisk-"

"I've even climbed that tree before! My parents would take me here and I would..." Frisk trailed off, looking down at their feet.

Shit. Sans didn't know what happened to the kid's parents, but something led them to Mt. Ebott. He crouched down in front of Frisk so that they were eye to eye, his hand still holding theirs from walking to the park from Tori's place.

"promise me you'll be careful?"

Frisk's head snapped up, a big grin spreading across their face. "Promise!"

Sans sighed before letting go of Frisk's hand. "then go ahead kiddo. if you can make it through the underground, you can climb a tree."

Frisk let out a squeal of excitement, and, after surprising Sans with a hug, ran toward Papyrus, who had spent the last five minutes sitting on the swings waiting for Frisk. Sans doesn't hear what Frisk says, but he does hear Papyrus exuberant response.

"WOWIE! CLIMBING A TREE SOUNDS LIKE A CHALLENGE THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL NOT FAIL TO COMPLETE!"

Sans smiles slightly as he goes to sit on a bench near the large tree. He normally would have spent his Sunday afternoon with Papyrus, "taste testing" new spaghetti recipes, but Toriel had called him, frantic about her weekly trip to the park's playground with Frisk. The former queen had fallen behind on grading, and she had apparently promised her students a pizza party on Monday if all her students did well on a recent exam. 

"Please, Frisk needs the fresh air, but I can't break my promise to the children! They studied so hard for this test, I can't let them down."

"sure thing tori," Sans said. "wouldn't want your students to think you were telling a _fibula_ now, do we?"

Toriel had laughed, and her laughter always made him feel warmer. He turned to Papyrus from his seat on the couch, who was starting to gather ingredients for the latest spaghetti experiment.

"hey pap, want to go to the park with frisk?"

"THE PARK? BUT..." Papyrus had frowned, putting down the bag of marshmallows he was holding. "WHAT WILL WE DO FOR DINNER IF I DON'T START THE SPAGHETTI FEAST NOW?"

"we can go to tori's for dinner tonight. i think she's making lasagna tonight"

"LASAGNA...?"

Sans had paused before hesitantly saying, "it's sort of like a spaghetti cake."

"SPAGHETTI CAKE? THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE MOST AMAZING MEAL OF ALL TIME!"

Papyrus was up for almost anything. It was one of the reason's Sans loved him so much. Papyrus' shouting brought Sans back to the present, and he glanced from his seat on the bench at the tree.

"HOW DID YOU GET SO HIGH UP HUMAN?"

"I climbed!" Frisk was, indeed, pretty high up in the tree. Sans frowned, a little anxious about how high up they were.

"hey kid, why don't you come back down?" He called, moving to stand under the tree. Papyrus had only climbed up a few branches and was sitting maybe five feet above the ground, while Frisk had managed to get a good twenty or so feet up.

"But Sans..."

"i know kid, but you're just a little high. you can still sit in the tree, just...not as high."

Frisk didn't respond for a moment, then Sans heard leaves rustling as they began to climb down. Heaving a sigh of relief, he turned and made his way back to the bench. He was just sitting down when he heard a loud _**SNAP.**_

Frisk screamed as they fell from the tree, the dead branch not bearing their weight at all. Sans barely processed what had happened when Frisk hit the ground, landing on their side.

"HUMAN!" 

As Sans took a shortcut and arrived in front of Frisk, Papyrus hopped down from his branch and tried to help Frisk up. As soon as he touched the child, however, they let out a ragged cry and squirmed out of his reach, still laying down. Sans knelt down beside them on the ground, and gingerly pressed a hand to their side, his arm shaking a little bit.  _please be okay._ Frisk flinched at the contact, but didn't pull away, their hair falling in their face and hiding them.

"you okay pal?"

Frisk whimpered and shook their head. "My... my arm..." Their voice was choked, as if they were trying not to cry.  _fuck._  

"pap and I are gonna sit you up, okay?"

Frisk nodded, and Papyrus came to sit down behind them. Always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, Papyrus looked absolutely devastated. Careful not to jostle Frisk's arm, the two sat the child up, and they leaned back against Papyrus, who was very careful not to touch them. Frisk, for their part, was holding their right arm very close to their chest.

"you gotta let me see your arm, buddy," Sans said softly. Frisk shook their head furiously, tears streaming down their face and snot starting to come out of their nose. Sans had never seen them cry so hard.

"Nu-uh. Y-you're gonna m-make it hurt more if you t-touch it."

"i promise you i'll be as gentle as i can." Sans took off his jacket it and gingerly draped it around the kids shoulders; despite it being a warm Spring day, they were starting to shiver. 

After a moment of thought, Frisk carefully stretched their arm out to Sans, whispering, "Hold it at the wrist. It doesn't hurt 'sbad there."

Papyrus wiped a Frisk's cheek with a long phalange, and said "YOU ARE THE BRAVEST HUMAN I KNOW!"

"Papyrus, I'm t-the only human you k-know."

"STILL! THE BRAVEST!"

Sans thanked whatever God existed that Frisk was wearing a short sleeve shirt that day, because as soon as he could see the arm properly, he saw the deep purple and black bruise on the forearm.

"fuck," he groaned, releasing the kid's wrist and running his hand down his face.

"S-sans?"

"pretty sure you're arm is broken kid."

"Oh."

Sans gave the kid a weak smile. "ah, come on buddy. don't be so _broken_ up about it."

As Frisk smiled slightly and Papyrus began to scold his brother ("IS THIS REALLY THE TIME SANS,") Sans repressed a groan.

_toriel is gonna fucking kill me._

 


	2. The Urgent Care Center

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I called Toriel for you, brother! She will be here momentarily!"  
> "i'm so fucked," Sans groaned into his hands.

_"do you wanna have a bad time? 'cause if you take another step forward...you are REALLY not going to like what happens next."_

_Sure enough, Frisk took a step forward, tossing their knife up into the air before deftly catching it, grinning manically._

_"welp." Sans shrugged. "sorry old lady. this is why I never make promises."_

_The sound of Frisk's spine snapping when he threw them against the wall wasn't satisfying enough. No, the dirty brother killer was just going to fucking reset, and fucking fight him again and again until he was nothing but dust. And Sans knew it too._

_**CRACK**. Frisk's shin snapped._

_**SNAP**. Frisk's neck._

_**CRUNCH**. Frisk's collarbone against a well placed bone wall._

_**CRACK**._

_**SNAP**._

_**CRUNCH**._

_The sounds became a rhythm to Sans. He lost count how many times he killed the kid. He lost count of the reloading. He didn't care. **SNAP**. **CRACK**. **CRUNCH**._

_Then, something changed. Frisk approached him without a weapon in hand, tears streaming down their face. Sans didn't fucking care._

_"oh come on pal, giving up already?"_

_Frisk only nodded. "I'll RESET. I'll do it better this time. Promise."_

_Sans hesitated for a second. "you do that kid, I won't break any of your bones again."_

_Frisk looked him in the eye, their own brown eyes looking oddly hopeful. "Okay. Deal."_

_._

_._

_RESET_

_._

_._

"SANS! SANS DID YOU EVEN HEAR WHAT I SAID?"

"huh?"

Papyrus scoffed. "YOU NEVER LISTEN!"

Sans gave Papyrus a weak smile, trying to shake of the vestiges of the memory of the previous timeline. Frisk was a good kid now, the best. They had kept their vow to Sans, and when they went through again, they didn't harm a single monster, never once going in for the attack. In the judgement hall, when Sans started to walk away to let them fight Asgore, the child had burst into tears and fell to their knees, sobbing. Sans, was at a loss for only half a second before he went to comfort them; he had grown to care for them deeply. The child explained they were crying out of relief because Sans didn't fight them this time around, and Sans smiled at them gently.

_"hey, i told ya kid, no more broken bones with me. promise."_

What a fucking liar he turned out to be.

"sorry, pap," Sans sighed, sitting back in the uncomfortable chair. "i'm a little distracted right now."

Papyrus' face softened. "I UNDERSTAND, BROTHER. BUT THE HUMAN-"

"Shh!" The nurse at the front desk hissed at them, gesturing behind her, reminding them they were in a hospital. Papyrus blushed slightly orange.

"MY APOLO- apologies," he amended, stage whispering to the overworked nurse, who only gave the skeleton a tired smile before going back to her paperwork.

"what were you saying pap?"

"Hmm? Ah, yes!" Papyrus turned back to his brothers and clapped his hands together, in delight. "I did you a big favor!"

"did you now?"

"I called Toriel for you, brother! She will be here momentarily!"

"i'm so fucked," Sans groaned into his hands. He did plan on calling Toriel, but that had fallen to the wayside after all the other things that had to be done first. 

He took Frisk to the urgent care center that was a two minute walk from the park, the one Toriel mentioned to him when she was worrying about Frisk going to the park without her. Carrying the child, who was no longer crying, but instead had tears silently trickling down their cheeks ( _fuckin' heartbreaking_ ) was a going to be tricky for Sans, because he wasn't very tall and he was worried about jostling them. Papyrus offered to do it, and insisted that Sans go ahead and warn the nurses that they were coming in, and hopefully get a head start in getting Frisk into the examination room. Sans was a little concerned that Papyrus knew the exact location of the ER, but that could be discussed later. Sans took one of his shortcuts and explained the situation to the nurse at the front desk.

The woman was a little weary of the skeleton, still not quite used to monsters in the two years since they had left the Underground, but when she saw Frisk being carried by Papyrus, she visibly relaxed.

"Hey sweetie," she gently cooed to Frisk, who was set down on the ground with extreme care.

"Hi Miss Ana," Frisk said quietly, walking back to the nurse with a shy smile. 

"What happened this time, baby?"

Frisk held out their arm to the nurse, who didn't look remotely surprised.

"Ouch. You did a number on yourself, huh?"

As Frisk began to recount their tree climbing adventure, Miss Ana led them into the back, listening avidly to the story. Papyrus and Sans were left standing in the waiting room confused as a different nurse took Ana's place at the front and winked at them. "I'll handle the paperwork, you two can have a seat while you wait for Frisk."

And thats where Sans was sat now, skull in his hands as Papyrus was in the kids area of the blissfully empty waiting room ( _small town advantages_ ) , sitting crosslegged in front of some weird toy, with different colored pipes in corkscrew shapes, moving the little wooden shapes on it with a peaceful smile on his face. He heard a little chime as the front door to the building opened, and didn't bother looking up. He knew who it was.

" _ **Sans**_."

He refused to look at Toriel as she made her way to stand in front of him, flinching at her harsh voice.  _welp. i had a good life. its just my time to die._

"You let them climb the tree?"

Sans glanced up weakly before putting his head back in his hands, nodding. **_SNAP. CRACK. CRUNCH._** ** _  
_**

Toriel sighed heavily. "...It is alright Sans. It is not your fault.

 _"what?"_   Sans' head snapped up, narrowing his eyes. "you're really going to say that? i let them climb the tree, even after you made me promise not to-"

"And were you the one to break the branch they stepped on?"

"n-no, but frisk wouldn't have even _stepped_ on the branch if i kept my promise to you!"  _my promise to them. **SNAP. CRACK. CRUNCH.**_

Toriel gave him a weak smile and sat down next to him in the chair, her white fur brushing against his bare arm bone.

"Frisk," Toriel began carefully, "is...they are a risk taker. I have seen them jump from the top of the stairs and land at the bottom and twist their ankle...I have seen them run on ice and fracture their collarbone..." Toriel drifted off quietly before looking up from her paws and at Sans, smiling. "And I have seen them climb that same tree dozens of times, and break various arms and legs."

"wh...what? but frisk told me-"

"Frisk told you that their parents let them climb trees before, yes?"

Sans nodded eagerly, and Toriel laughed. "They were referring to me and Asgore. We used to let them climb the tree, but after a particularly rough fall, and a fractured skull later..." Toriel's smile dropped at the memory. "No more trees after that." 

Sans was silent for a long moment, before asking Toriel "why didn't you just tell me that?"

Toriel blushed at that. "I...I did not want to seem like a bad mother. I try so hard to keep Frisk safe, but something happened to them in the Underground. Something that made them think they're immortal." Toriel sounded so sad, and Sans slowly lowered his head back into his hands. "That, or something that made them immune to pain."

 _not immune to pain_ , Sans thought angrily. _just used to it. i did this to the kid._

Toriel gently put a paw on Sans' shoulder. "They will be alright, Sans. In fact," she added with a slightly amused tone, "You did not have to take them here."

"their arm-"

"Is broken. I can heal that in less than a minute, Sans."

Sans was silent, frozen in surprise. He heard some footsteps from behind them. 

"Tori, hey!" It was Ana, coming back from the exam room alone. "I was wondering when you'd come by to get Frisk."

"Ana, lovely to see you!" Toriel smiled brightly as she got up, giving Ana a tight hug. Ana laughed as she pulled back.

"You act like I haven't see you in years!"

"Three days feels like years, sometimes."

As the two laughed, Sans stood up. "explain?" The two woman looked at him, he spread his arms out, incredulous. "please?"

 Toriel smiled. "I am a healer Sans, so why not use my magic on the people who need it?"

Ana nodded. "Toriel has been volunteering here on Tuesdays and Thursdays, healing every patient we get through that door since the Underground opened. Thats why I know who Frisk is; they come with their Mom and hang out here until the two of them head home. It's also how I learned that Frisk is a bit reckless," she added with a chuckle.

"I'm not reckless, I'm adventurous. At least, that's what Dr. Bob says." Frisk came out of the exam room, sporting a bright blue cast on their right arm and carrying a file folder, followed by a man that Sans assumed was Dr. Bob. 

"I kept my word Tori, as you can see," he said, gesturing to the child, standing sheepishly in front of Toriel. "A cast."

Toriel nodded, a stern look coming over her face that Undyne referred to as _Strict Teacher Face._

"You know why you are wearing the cast and why I will not heal it this time, yes?"

Frisk sighed. "Because I didn't listen to you and broke a rule."

"An explicit rule I gave you and warned you about," Toriel corrected before her face softened as she looked at the doctor. "Bad fracture?"

"Very clean break, but it was a particularly bad one, yes. I'm not surprised they were crying."

As Toriel and the medical workers chatted, Frisk slipped away and moved to stand in front of Sans and Papyrus, who stopped playing games when Frisk came out.

"M'sorry Sans," they mumbled, looking at their feet. "I should have been truthful."

"yeah," he agreed, his voice harsher than he meant it. "you really had me worried, kid."

"AND ME AS WELL," Papyrus boomed before flushing orange and remembering to talk quietly. "But I am glad you are alright, human."

Frisk offered Papyrus a smile and then handed them the folder. "Guess what that is!"

"What is it?" Papyrus flipped the folder opened and gasped. "OH MY GOD!" Abandoning all attempts to be quiet, he marveled over Frisk's x-ray. "THAT CAN'T BE YOU!"

"I promise it is," Frisk said smiling. 

"THIS IS SO COOL!" Papyrus turned to Sans and shoved the image at Sans, who stared at the broken bone miserably for a second before he felt Frisk tug at his shirt. He glanced down at the kid, who looked up at him, suddenly shy. 

"I really can't lie about that being my x-ray...you can see right through me!"

"OH MY GOD."

Sans grinned at Frisk, and pulled them into a tight hug, mindful of their arm. "that's right frisk. and there is not point in trying to get you to be more careful. know why?"

Frisk shook their head, and Sans smirked. "you are just _bone_ to be wild."

"THAT WASN'T EVEN THAT CLEVER! I'M GOING BACK TO THE WOODEN TOY."

Frisk moved to follow Papyrus, but Sans stopped them, and kneeling down to eye level with them, looked at them sternly. "no more lying to me like that, okay? i just want you to be safe."

"I know," Frisk said quietly, looking at their cast. They glanced back at Sans and smiled softly. 

"No more broken bones with me. Promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their kind words on the last chapter about my cat. Sure enough, the next morning after the chapter was posted, my father called to let me know she was too weak to even move. But she felt no pain at all, and the vet assured my parents (I'm away at college, and they took her in) that she seemed like she wasn't in any pain at all. She had 17 years of life, and we were incredibly blessed to have the time with her that we did. I'm glad that she didn't suffer for even one moment.
> 
> I'm glad people seemed to be liking my fics! I'm actually writing a novel when I'm not doing school work, and my works here are kind of me warming up to do some of the novel. The fact that people like what I put out makes me more confidant in my novel. I guess you can saw it fills me with determination. So keep commenting and leaving kudos! I really appreciate them.
> 
> Finally (long ass notes today, sorry), I do have a tumblr if anyone wants to follow it. I do post undertale stuff, but I also reblog Game Grumps, Roosterteeth, and a lot of random shit. Don't feel obligated though, it's kind of a shit blog.  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nightshade-and-tea
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Oh, and this is the toy Pap was playing with:  
> http://www.amazon.com/The-Original-Rollercoaster-by-Anatex/dp/B00000IRKL  
> Every doctor's office had this shit when I was a kid.


End file.
